Donglegate: Apple No Longer Including 3.5mm to Lightning Port Dongles with iPhones

While yes, this is technically a rumor, the source appears to have some legitimacy, so prepare yourselves to shell out extra dough when you need to connect your 3.5mm headphones to your iPhone. Currently, the 3.5 to Lightning port dongle comes included with your iPhone purchase, but if the rumor is true, that's about to stop. Donglegate has begun.

The report ultimately comes from an analyst at Barclays, who cites Cirrus Logic as the source. Cirrus Logic supplies the dongles, and they're the ones claiming that they'll no longer come in the box with the iPhone devices.

This will undoubtedly frustrate a lot of users, but given how hard Apple has pushed the AirPods, it shouldn't come as a surprise. This isn't a war on 3.5mm, it's a war on wires, period. Apple (rightfully) believes that wireless is the future, and they believe that future is now, though I'm willing to believe plenty would challenge that.

The dongle, sold separately, costs $9. Apple will undoubtedly continue to sell it. The company is bold, not suicidal. AirPods aren't cheap and plenty will continue to use wired earbuds, especially those of who still have a dongle from an iPhone in the last couple years.

Consumers won't like this, but the big question is just how much they won't like this. At just $9 a pop, Apple can't be saving that much money, and it might not be worth irritating a sizable portion of their base. That is, if this is even true. It could turn out to be just a rumor and nothing more. Still, let's all get used to saying Donglegate.

About The Author

Dylan Duarte is a freelance writer who's covered film, television, videogames, and of course tech! He's also an aspiring screenwriter and likes that watching movies is considered "work" because of it. You can follow him on twitter @dylanduarte, but be warned that it's mostly the nonsensical ramblings of a potty-mouth.